Premiere: “Actions at a Distance,” by Frame

Caitlin Frame is a New York-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer who is classically trained in percussion, piano, and voice, but for Frame, her eponymous pop/post-punk project, she focused her attention on her bass guitar.

“I love my bass—I should probably have a bumper sticker that says that,” Frame says. “It’s a 1978 Fender Mustang. I have yet to change the strings, because the worn-out buttery feel is ideal in contrast to playing with a pick.”

With the instrument anchoring her rhythmic, airy sounds, Frame set to work on her upcoming debut, State of Mind (Concierge Records). Recorded primarily at Russell Street Studios in Brooklyn, the studio’s ambiance lent additional flavor to her compositions. “ I like a studio that has natural light,” she says. The downside is the potential outside noise, but since I’m far from a purist when it comes to getting sounds, that trade off doesn’t really bother me. One song has birds chirping throughout the piano track because I had all the windows open on a hot summer day.”

Frame’s hook-driven album single, “Actions at a Distance,” deals with themes of time and space, and the impact they can have on relationships. “Einstein called it “Spooky Action at a Distance,” but that had less of a ring to it,” Frame says. The song was informed by a period of her life where she on tour with another band as a guitarist while her partner was starting school in another part of the country.

“We were both embarking on separate emotional journeys, so to speak, and while it was completely necessary for both of us, it also ended up creating a space that was very unsettling. I was on the other side of the country, yet it still felt like our actions created immediate effects upon each other emotionally and physically. For better or worse, this person was energetically connected to me,” she says.

Check out “Actions at a Distance” below. State of Mind comes out on October 27, and pre-orders are available now.